AARC Election 2026 — John Blewett

AARC Activities:

• Chair, AARC Elections Committee 2005
• Member, AARC Elections Committee, October 2002 to December 2004

HOD Activities:

• Senior Delegate, New Mexico Society for Respiratory Care December 2000 to December 2002, and December 2004 to December, 2006 and January 2022 to January 2024. Junior Delegate January, 1999 to December, 2000 and January, 2020 to January 2022, and January 2024-present
• Co-Chair, HOD Disaster Relief Ad Hoc Committee, Nov 2024-present
• Co-Chair, HOD Ad Hoc Committee on Affiliate Pandemic Impact 2020, 2021
• Chair, AARC HOD Chartered Affiliates Committee 2002
• Member, HOD Student Mentorship Committee 2021-present
• Member HOD Chartered Affiliates Committee 2021-present
• Member, AARC HOD Progress and Transition Committee 2002
• Member, AARC HOD Publications Committee 1999 and 2000, Chair 2005-2006
• AARC Delegate of the Year Award 2002

Affiliate Activities:

• President-elect/President/Immediate Past President, New Mexico Society for Respiratory Care, 1996 to 1999
• Treasurer, NMSRC 1995–1996, NMSRC, and January 2016 to January 2020
• Program Committee Chair 1995, 1999 and 2024
• Have served on the NMSRC program committee continuously since 1991: chaired several sub-committees including education, sputum bowl, golf tournament and awards.
• Parliamentarian, NMSRC 2006–2012
• AARC Outstanding Affiliate Contributor Award, December 2007

Related Organizations:

• Member, Board of Directors and Communications Chair, Albuquerque Quality Network (AQN), December 2017 to present
• Member, American Lung Association of New Mexico (ALANM) Board of Directors, August 1997 to June 1999
• Advisory Committee for ALA Arizona/New Mexico June 1999–2000

Education and Credentials:

• Master of Arts in Educational Leadership (Leadership for Community and Organizational Learning Concentration) University of New Mexico 2009
• Bachelor of University Studies University of New Mexico 1993 (Magna Cum Laude [General Honors], Distinction)
• Associate of Science in Respiratory Therapy, University of Albuquerque 1986

Publications:

• Pearce E, Campen MJ, Baca JT, Blewett JP, Femling J, Hanson D, Kraai E, Muttil P, Wolf B, Lauria M, Braude D. Aerosol Generation with Various Approaches to Oxygenation in Healthy Volunteers in the Emergency Department. J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open. In press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/emp2.12390
• Singh S, Podila S, Pyon G, Blewett J, Jefferson J, McKee R, An analysis of 3,954 cases to determine surgical wound classification accuracy: Does your institution need a Monday morning quarterback?, The American Journal of Surgery (2020), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2020.04.017
• Colorectal Infections and Bundle Block: When Bundles Are Not The Answer, Podium presentation American College of Surgeons Quality and Safety Conference, July 2018. Jones, Lucero. Fiser, Blewett, Kenna, McKee.

Elections Committee Questions:

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the AARC, and what do you recommend to address it?

Despite strong efforts, most staff respiratory therapists do not understand who we (the AARC) are and what we do, especially for them and their state affiliates, resulting in low membership rates relative to the potential number of members we could have. One strategy is to develop and give state affiliate leadership the tools they need to drive a strong “grass roots” effort to better educate the backbone of our association, staff respiratory therapists providing direct patient care and patient education. Most state affiliate leaders are in management or education, so they have good access to students and staff respiratory therapists and can serve as conduits of information about the AARC and the many benefits there are to having the AARC. This would include having state affiliate leadership having mentors/contacts who can help them distribute information effectively at the affiliate level to all respiratory therapists.

Healthcare is changing more rapidly than ever. What ideas do you have to help today’s respiratory therapist meet these challenges?

Ideally this starts at the student level for respiratory therapists. Current students and working respiratory therapists can all benefit from resources that help them navigate the current and future healthcare landscape. One important avenue is the continuation of advocation for having respiratory therapists be involved in patient management and making decisions for the respiratory care of their patients, including advocating for therapist-driven protocols based on good evidence. Instilling in respiratory therapists (and students) that they can have an active role in the management of their patients by participating on multi-disciplinary teams, rounding on patients, etc., and building a reputation as an expert and a source of information rather than simply doing routine respiratory therapy is key to the evolution and elevation of our profession. The evolution of the ARPT along with the specialized areas that respiratory therapist can be credentialed in makes for great opportunity!

Your role as Director-at Large is to represent the general AARC membership. If given the opportunity to represent, what will be your goals in advocating for the everyday respiratory care professional?

1. Increase awareness and promotion of the AARC and how it benefits respiratory therapists and the profession as a whole.

2. Work with the AARC to continue to improve our messaging (website navigation, improving our platforms, social media presence, etc.) Good progress has been made already, but there is still a lot of opportunity here.

3. Work with the AARC to increase membership as described above.

4. Assist with developing more strategies to increase the number of staff respiratory therapists who actively participate at the affiliate and national level (for example, the very effective Emerging Leaders program recently started by the AARC).

5. Assist with promotion of good career pathway planning and unconventional opportunities for RTs based on the wide skill and knowledge base required to be an RT!